Zuckerberg says Meta will beam sunlight from space to power AI data centers

[John Clark]

Zuckerberg says Meta will beam sunlight from space to power AI data centers

John K Clark    See what's on my list at  Extropolis

mjj

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Thu, Apr 30, 2026 at 07:23:49AM -0400, John Clark wrote:
> *Zuckerberg says Meta will beam sunlight from space to power AI data
> centers*
> <https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/meta-will-beam-sunlight-from-space-to-power-ai-data-centers-solar-collecting-satellites-will-orbit-22-000-miles-above-earth-firm-reserves-1-gigawatt-of-orbital-solar-energy-and-100-gigawatt-hours-of-long-duration-storage>

Why not process the power into data before transmitting it?
Why not radiate the waste heat of computing into deep space
rather than the biosphere?

The vague press release mentions beaming the energy as infrared;
but WHICH infrared?

Infrared is defined as frequencies greater than 300 GHz (1mm
wavelength) to 380 THz (780 nm wavelength), a factor of more
than 1000; and all are harder to focus than visible light,
and more difficult to phase-lock than microwaves, difficult to
synthesize electronically, and very difficult to phase-lock
coherently across a large space structure.

I'd write more, but I have a dozen more useful ideas to
research and write about. Zuckerberg is a college dropout,
not a physicist or an electronic engineer.

Could someone with more time drill down into this and figure
out the scam this "news" is a cover story for? My guess is
Zuck's goal is to divert attention from less-impractical
ideas, such as the microwave SSPS we write about.

----

See http://server-sky.com for a better idea.

BTW, a software geek reading this can help me securely
upgrade my server and wiki websites to https. Zuck
was probably a better coder/sysadmin than I am.

Keith L.

--
Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com

[k.a.carroll]

That article is inaccurate. Meta has contracted with Overview Energy to beam the power down to solar farms on Earth. Overview is the company Paul Jaffe works for; with him as their systems engineering guy, I'd say they know their stuff technically. Maybe Paul would be able to answer some questions about this; but I'm sure there are questions he'd not be allowed to answer.

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[Mark Sonter]

The wavelength is near-IR, and is going to be ca 1000nm. The partner is Overview Energy. The actual size / mass of the orbital facilities is unclear but the impression is these are to be launchable on F9.

In principle, NIR rather than 5 cm microwave overcomes the non-scaleable-down problem with the classical GEO SSPS concepts, viz need for km-size transmitters to get small-enough spot-on-ground.

Also, and critical importance, note that ordinary silicon solar panels do give good capture efficiency out to ca 1100nm. This means that Overview can beam down to presently-extant solar 'farms'...

I think it might have wings, depending on whether or not they can put large-enough assets in F9s, and whether the cost-to-orbit is low enough o close the bizcase....

Cheers,

mark

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“Keep everything as simple as possible, but no simpler” - A. Einstein

-----Original Message-----
From: power-satell...@googlegroups.com <power-satell...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Keith Lofstrom
Sent: Saturday, 2 May 2026 11:07 AM
To: John Clark <johnk...@gmail.com>
Cc: Power Satellite Economics <power-satell...@googlegroups.com>

[John Clark]

On Fri, May 1, 2026 at 9:07 PM Keith Lofstrom <kei...@keithl.com> wrote:

> Why not process the power into data before transmitting it?
Why not radiate the waste heat of computing into deep space
rather than the biosphere?   

Those are very good questions! I think using the power that power satellites produce in space is the only way they make economic sense, it could be the first step towards making a Dyson sphere/swarm. If you have the technical ability to build a solar satellite capable of producing gigawatts of electrical power then you should also have the technical ability to build a space based data center that can use that power. Beaming all that energy back to Earth has always been the weakest part of the idea, and with data-processing there is no need to do so. 

John K Clark    See what's on my list at  Extropolis

ehj

  

 

[Paul Jaffe]

(answering in my personal capacity, not as an employee of Overview Energy)

> Why not process the power into data before transmitting it?

An intriguing possibility, and one that I've been thinking about since you introduced me to http://server-sky.com/, what, about 15 years ago?

But the fact is there will always be energy demand by people, on Earth (hopefully!) or at least for the foreseeable future. Though the energy demands of data centers are growing, and will continue, they are currently a tiny percentage of total energy and electricity demand. https://energy.ec.europa.eu/news/focus-data-centres-energy-hungry-challenge-2025-11-17_en

> Why not radiate the waste heat of computing into deep space rather than the biosphere?   

Certainly, this seems like an opportunity, but of course needs to be balanced in the assessment of a complete system.

> The vague press release mentions beaming the energy as infrared; but WHICH infrared?

Near infrared. https://www.overviewenergy.com/updates/space-to-grid  

> Could someone with more time drill down into this and figure out the scam this "news" is a cover story for?  

I have a conflict of interest here as an Overview Energy employee, so I'll leave this to someone else. Obviously, I don't think it's a scam. 

> My guess is Zuck's goal is to divert attention from less-impractical ideas, such as the microwave SSPS we write about.

I will point out that sending energy to existing solar farms vs. development of rectenna ground receivers overcomes the huge hurdles of ground receiver development, site identification, spectrum allocation, facility purchase/lease/build, and grid interconnection (currently the interconnect queue duration is on the order of five years). https://sustainabilitydialogue.uchicago.edu/news/how-the-interconnection-queue-backlog-is-slowing-energy-growth/

Note I am someone who has had the privilege of being involved with power beaming technology development across the spectrum, microwave through optical. Shameless book plug, currently under $48.65 for the paperback on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4t8iqze 

[John Clark]

On Sat, May 2, 2026 at 7:01 AM 'Paul Jaffe' via Power Satellite Economics <power-satell...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

> Though the energy demands of data centers are growing, and will continue, they are currently a tiny percentage of total energy and electricity demand.

In the USA during 2024 (the most recent figures I could find) data centers consumed 4.4% of the nation's electricity, I wouldn't call that "tiny" and it's certainly higher than that today in 2026.  Some estimate it could grow as high as 17% by 2030, and I see no reason why it will stop there.

John K Clark    See what's on my list at  Extropolis

rxi

[Bryan Zetlen]

You understand a Dyson sphere would be lethal to everything in it?

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[John Clark]

On Sat, May 2, 2026 at 11:58 AM Bryan Zetlen <br...@virtussolis.space> wrote:

> You understand a Dyson sphere would be lethal to everything in it?

Sure, but if a Dyson Sphere is ever built, and I think it will be, it won't be biological beings like humans who complete it, super intelligent computers will,  and those computers will be outside the sphere not inside it. The era of Humans making all the big decisions is rapidly coming to an end because biology can't compete with electronics. I'm not saying that is a good thing, I'm just saying that's the way things are.  

  John K Clark    See what's on my list at  Extropolis

_)(

[Opener of the Way]

If I had a thousand dollars for every thing Zuckerberg said that wasn't true I would have millions of dollars. 

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